Chapter 9: The Gilded Boy

I did say late summer.

I'M BACK, BABY! I would have updated a tad bit sooner, but I got caught up with writing future chapters and watching Rurouni Kenshin, Xiaolin Showdown, Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Abridged, everything by TeamFourStar, etc.

But before I get rolling here, a quick shout out to MasterSpecter, who not only followed and favorited this story, but put me on his favorite authors list/alert. As a thank you for the loyalty, this chapter's for you!

Evan caught Newt when he fainted.

Well, of course he fainted! Newt just stopped time, for crying out loud! Stopping time for the entire planet was hard enough, but stopping it in just one area for a small amount of people? Forget about it!

Sam wasn't doing too well either. Using the lightning had actually spooked her a little, especially when it was so close to destroying her heart. She was breathing heavily as she clamped a hand over her heart.

Kevin noticed. "You okay?" Sam nodded. She would be okay. She always was.

Ben had turned back into his human form and was helping Carter hoist Newt onto Evan's back. "Are you always so vocal when it comes to taunting your enemies?" the young hero asked the Slayer.

"It's called trash talk," Carter corrected, "And yes, I am. It's easier to fight them when all they're thinking about is how to kill you."

By that time Kevin and Sam had caught up to them. Michael was holding Gwen's hand, making sure she was okay. When they finally walked over to the rest, they were still holding hands.

Kevin was not happy about that.

"What do we do now?" Michael asked. That was a fairly good question, actually. One of them was unconscious, another had her powers drastically weakened, and the baddies were stuck frozen in time.

"Knowing the spell Newt used, we won't be able to move them." Sam gestured to the zombie girls. "We have an hour, maybe two tops before they start moving again."

"Which means we have enough time to send him-" Evan nodded his head towards sleeping Newt-"home. You got your card, Carter?"

"I would gladly use it, but someone still has it." Carter glared at Sam, who held up her hands in surrender.

"I forgot to bring it with me. We can just set him Kevin's car, right?" She looked at him.

"As long as he doesn't drool on the seats," Kevin said gruffly. "And what card?"

"Anyway," Carter interrupted. It was time for a conversation changer. "What happened just now? Your powers kind of… collapsed on you." Carter looked at Gwen with genuine concern.

"I-I don't know," Gwen admitted. "I just felt really weak all of a sudden."

"I think what happened to the zombies over there is happening to you too," Evan said. Everyone looked at him in surprise. He stared back. "What?"

"Explanation, now," Sam demanded.

"I think I get it," Kevin said. Now everyone was looking at him. "These girls were draining energy from the power plant because they have none of their own. Maybe the same thing is happening with Gwen."

"My power is not being drained!" Gwen protested, though it was futile. There was too much evidence against her.

"I think what you need is some time to rest," Michael told her soothingly. "How about dinner, to get your energy back up?"

Gwen smiled. "That'd be nice, actually. Especially if it means I get to thank you for always helping me."

Oh, gag me, Sam thought as she saw the two lovebirds flirt with each other. Sam did not do sappy romances; it just didn't happen that way in real life. That was why romance films made her want to vomit on the nearest couple. And seeing it right here in real life made it even worse.

Kevin wasn't too happy, but for different reasons. He still had lingering feelings for Gwen and, even though it was a small crush, it still hurt to see Gwen agreeing to dinner with another guy right in front of him. But Kevin had made himself pretty clear when he said he was interested in someone else and that Gwen should go out with whoever she wanted.

Then again, something about Michael was off to him. Kevin just couldn't place it.

"Why the hell are we breaking into Morningstar's house?" Sam asked Kevin as he tried to unlock the massive front door.

After Gwen had walked off arm-in-arm with Michael for their dinner date, Kevin had driven the others to Michael's house for some more reconnaissance. Mainly, for any dirt on good-guy Michael.

Ben, being the perpetual trusting good guy that he was, was against it. "This is totally wrong!" he was saying as Kevin used his Osmosian powers to break into the mansion. "This is something the old Kevin would do! What would Gwen say if she saw you right now?"

"Gwen isn't here right now," Kevin answered gruffly. "Michael ain't right, Ben. There's somethin' off about him, and I intend to prove it."

"I have to agree," Evan said, suddenly causing them to turn and look at him. "I saw how Newt tried to read those girls' minds while they were suspended like that. And from the look on his face, I bet he found out something really bad."

"And don't forget the fact that he looks like a rich snob," Carter pointed out. "Guys like him always have some sort of hidden agenda."

"What, you dated guys like him?" Kevin joked, though it fell kind of flat.

"Sam did," Carter said, forcing Kevin to stop what he was doing and look at the redhead.

"What?" she hissed at him.

"Nothing," he said, going back to work. Kevin should have figured that Sam had dated before he met her. Hell, he wasn't so innocent either, having one-night stands and rarely having a steady relationship once he was out of prison. But Sam with guys like Morningstar? That was hard for Kevin to wrap his mind around.

The door unlocked. "We're in!" Kevin said happily as the door swung open. He turned to a frustrated Ben. "And they said I didn't learn anything in the Null Void."

"We can still get out of this," Ben pleaded. "Just walk away now."

"Forget it, Tennyson," Evan told him blithely. "It's four to one- maybe five to one if Newt was conscious. Either way, we're snooping." And with that, Evan jammed him hands into his pockets and began to stroll into the mansion. Ben grabbed his shoulder to stop him.

"This is wrong and you know it!" he yelled at him.

Evan turned to him, anger blazing in his eyes. "Is this is how you're going to build a team? By fighting over the damn new guy? You're supposed to be a leader, so act like one!"

Now Ben was furious. "I am trying to be a leader! I'm trying to stop you guys from turning into criminals!"

"Too late," Carter mumbled. Ben turned his head away from Evan long enough to glare at her. She spread her arms out and gave an innocent, "What?"

"A leader is supposed to do what's best for the team and to let them have their say!" Ben turned his attention back to Evan. "And the team says-"

"Is Mike home?" a female voice cut in, interrupting Evan's well-intentioned tirade. It was Trina, the girl Michael had saved from being road kill earlier. "He hasn't called me since you and that new girl showed up," she continued, sounding shaky.

"Morningstar isn't here at the moment," Evan said politely. "Can you leave a message? We can give it to him next time we see him."

"What are you, his secretary?" Sam whispered, giggling. Evan didn't bother to comment on that.

Trina stepped forward, trying to look past the people in front of her into the dark home. "Are you sure he's not here? I can check for you." She was climbing the stairs, trying to get past Kevin and Ben to get into the house. There was something so desperate about her manner, so pitiful in her need to just see Michael that Ben was almost willing to let her go. Almost.

"We really don't know where he is! He's busy." Ben grabbed Trina's arm to stop her from going into the mansion.

"I need to see him," Trina insisted, looking hopefully at Evan and the girls. They looked at each other and nodded once. The girl needed to take a little nap.

That was when Sam noticed the marks on Trina's arm. "Where did you get those?" she asked, pointing to the purple star thing on her arm. Trina just shrugged her shoulders.

Kevin forced the heroes to huddle. "I saw those same marks on the girl who tried to tenderize me."

"I just want to see Mike!"

"We're getting that!" Kevin said meanly to Trina. He turned back to the group. "Call me crazy, but is Morningstar the one making these girls act this way?"

"You're crazy!" Ben told him, making the Slayers roll their eyes at his childish behavior.

That was when Trina suddenly came up to them, wondering what they were talking about. They were forced to move over a bit to avoid detection.

Sam was clotting onto Kevin's way of thinking. "I think Kevin's right. I saw that Gwen had her sleeves unusually low. I didn't peg it with the girls since I've never seen her before today, but she could be hiding something."

Ben looked at Trina, who had more than one of those marks on her arm. It was beginning to dawn on him that maybe, just maybe, he was wrong about Michael.

Ben was going to ask if anyone saw those marks on his cousin when Trina collapsed. Newt was hovering over her, looking ashen but very conscious, with a hand outstretched. "She was trying to get into the house," he said, gesturing towards the open door.

"Vulcan nerve pinch?" Carter asked. Newt gave the Vulcan hand salute in response.

Then Newt noticed two people missing from the group. "Where's Morningstar and Gwen?" he asked, alarmed.

"At dinner or something; why?" Evan asked suspiciously.

"Michael's the one behind everything!"

Newt filled them in on what he saw in those girls' minds while in Kevin's car.

"You couldn't find anything besides a scrap of memory?" Ben asked, looking crestfallen. Just when they had found a way to help Gwen…

"Morningstar did a good job making his victims forget," Newt said grimly. "I was lucky to get even that."

"Now that I think about it, it all fits kind of perfectly," Sam said. "The energy volts-"

"The sparkly trail when he flies," Kevin interrupted unhelpfully.

"The energy drains," Sam continued, "everything points to Morningstar. It was all so obvious!"

Obviously, Evan thought to himself. He could have told everyone this before, but where was the fun in that? It was amusing to see the others cottoning on to the problem by themselves instead of them needing a mentor. And they did figure it out eventually, except Ben refused to admit it. Ben was the leader now, and even though Evan could take over the position, it just wouldn't be right. No one would willingly follow a Slayer anyway, not even if he was right about something. Evan just had to watch and see Ben take action on his own, with the occasional well-intentioned rant or two.

Ben was still hoping that they were wrong about all of this, that he hadn't made a foolish mistake and accidentally put Gwen in danger. He could still talk the others out of all of this while they were looking for Gwen. There was no way Ben was going to admit he was wrong, not now.

"I'm really glad we met, Gwen," Michael was saying in the dam. It was just after dinner and Gwen was feeling great. She didn't know why they were at a water dam, but that wasn't important.

"I'm glad we met too," Gwen said sweetly. For some reason, she was now feeling that something was wrong about this date, but that was probably just nerves. No need to spoil the moment.

"I knew there was something special about you the first time we met," Michael said as he walked up to Gwen. They were standing on some sort of platform, close to the machinery in the plant but far enough away to be safe from them.

"I felt it too," Gwen said, feeling absolutely giddy. Sure, the feeling of wrongness was still there, but that didn't matter. Michael looked into her eyes softly, like Gwen was the most precious thing in the world.

"And now, all those other girls mean nothing to me." Gwen wanted to know what he meant by that, but Michael was grabbing her arms and leaning in.

Then she felt the energy drain again.

"Your energy is like nothing I ever felt before," Michael was saying, his voice no longer soft and gentle. Gwen realized too late that she should have listened to that gut feeling that something bad was going to happen.

"When I feed on your energy, I feel invincible. When I held your hand before, I knew you were the only girl I would ever need." Michael was smirking now, and Gwen wanted to get away, but she was just too weak. She was literally trapped in the arms of a power-hungry madman, and there was nothing she could do.

Ben was still arguing his case as the car drove onto the highway, since he had too much stupid pride to admit he was wrong.

"Fact is you guys have been against Morningstar ever since we met him!" Ben was yelling in the passenger seat. Kevin was driving- of course- and the Slayers were cramped in the backseats.

"True, but at first it was just being suspicious of the new guy," Evan said defensively.

"That and he's an arrogant, bragging rich kid," Kevin said angrily. There was no need to tell Kevin that most of the people he was driving were arrogant rich kids. Not that they bragged about it.

"And now Gwen's in trouble and you're too stuck on your grandfather's instructions to see it!" Now Carter was arguing her case too. Ben was kind of hoping she'd take his side.

"Then if Mike's the one turning those girls into zombies, then why isn't Trina one?" Ben asked her angrily.

"How the bloody hell should I know?" Carter had not adopted a British accent since that would have been inappropriate for this situation.

"Maybe it's a vampire thing," Sam reasoned. "Maybe it takes a while before they go all zombie."

"That makes sense," Newt said. "There are plenty of legends of vampires taking energy instead of blood. Of course, taking blood would have been much eviler-"

"Not the time, Newt." Carter swatted at her cousin. Her cousin shut up for the moment.

"Are you people listening to yourselves?" Of course Ben was still defending his case. "Mike's been helping us ever since we got here. He fought those zombies with us, remember?"

"I remember him flying away while he left us to deal with his mess," Sam said bitterly.

"He did tell us not to hurt them," Evan said casually. That irked Ben.

"Even if you guys are right, we don't know where they went for dinner. We don't even know how to find her." This did not mean that Ben wasn't still defending his judgment; he was just tired of the arguing.

Kevin held up his Plumbers badge. "Easy. We find him."

They were parked at the dam minutes later. Evan pointed to the road to the right of them. "This road leads to the highway," he said. "Trina was probably trying to get away from Morningstar."

"Can we just check on Gwen?" Without even waiting for an answer, Ben walked into the power plant. Certain of their victory, the others followed.

The scene they walked in on was gruesome.

Gwen was a gray, wrinkly shell of her former self, and she was in the arms of Michael Morningstar. Except that he had a strange gold armor covering him skin, and his fourteen-karat aura was venomous.

"GWEN!" Sam, Ben, and Kevin cried out, both with genuine fear and concern over the poor girl.

When Mike saw the crowd in front of him, he gently put Gwen down and zapped a bolt of energy at Ben. He, along with Evan, was knocked down. Sam, who had been too far away to get hit, yelled, "Get your hands off her, you creep!" and shot a huge blast of pure fire at the freak in front of her. Michael absorbed the fire and grinned.

"I thank you for the delicious energy, though it was too wild for my tastes." Sam made a hissing noise.

That was when Carter remembered they were at a hydroelectric dam. She stretched out her arms and her gray eyes glowed blue. Water crashed in from the open door and nearly flooded the place, but Carter had it all under control. She willed the large amount of water to swirl around her like a protective ring. Then she shot some of it at Michael, enveloping him in a giant orb of water.

"Whoa," Carter could hear Ben and Kevin gasp behind her. But she had no time to bask in their awe; Michael was looking oddly calm in his watery prison.

That was when Michael exploded. Or rather, he evaporated the water around him in one huge blast. The blast was strong enough to knock Carter off her feet and lose control of the water ring surrounding her. The water fell in huge puddles on the floor.

Kevin and Ben decided to take action. Kevin knelt down to absorb the metal in the floor, while Ben turned into Jetray. Michael was too busy trying to hit the flying alien with large energy volts to notice Kevin trying to physically hurt him with punches. Not that it worked, though.

"GO AWAY!" Michael screamed, emanating energy from his entire body. It was strong enough to send both Kevin and Jetray flying back, forcing Jetray to turn back into Ben. He was now too weak to fight. Kevin wasn't doing so well either. His armor had been ripped off, revealing his weak human body. He was also unconscious. Sam was near him, cursing her incompetence to help. Of course, it wasn't her fault that Michael could absorb her firepower. That didn't mean Sam wanted to stay on the sidelines.

On the plus side, Evan and Newt were still in the running. While Michael was droning on about how Gwen was his now, Evan had built up a small rock shield to temporarily protect him and Newt while Newt flipped his book to that one spell. "Alligaverit malefici industria! (Bind the maleficent energy!)" He yelled. A giant, luminescent green box was surrounding Michael, locking him in one place.

Michael smiled when the energy spell cracked and exploded.

"That was one of the strongest defense spells I know!" Newt cried as he fell to the ground.

Now it was up to Evan and Carter, who had hiding out in the shadows, dodging Michael's attacks. There was water surrounding Carter, turning into sharp pointy icicles aimed straight at Michael's vital organs. Evan punched at the rock shield he created in repeated succession, projecting rocks at Michael at incredibly fast speeds. Michael just shot them to dust, which did not help the good guys' chances.

Carter was about to attack when Gwen stood up.

Oblivious, Michael said, "Why use your powers to help people when you can get whatever you want?" In came a dozen girls from the sides who Michael had fed on earlier, including Trina. All of them were zombies.

"All I ever wanted was power," Michael was saying. "And then you brought me Gwen. I guess I should thank you." But before he could do any more damage, Gwen grabbed both of his hands. A golden aura surrounded them both, and Michael's golden skin was beginning to crack and peel off. "What are you doing?" he cried at her.

Gwen, who was rapidly getting her youth back, simply answered, "I'm coming to my senses."

"Stop this!" Michael cried again as more energy flowed out of him and into Gwen. And then he fell back like he had been shot, while Gwen was still standing.

"Guys!" she cried, turning her back on the weakened enemy and using her powers to get down from the platform. Kevin and Ben were waking up, and Evan had let his dirt shield crumble. Newt was okay, though tired. Sam was near the boys, checking their vitals. Carter still had her icicles at the ready, just in case.

She saw Michael get up and give them an ugly sneer, which was now truly ugly, thanks to the gray skin and pale hair. "Girls!" he called out to his zombie pets. "Come-here to me!" He was having trouble talking thanks to his weakened state. The girls shambled over to their master.

"Give me your power! Help me!" But the girls had no intention of helping him. With hisses that soon became screams, they tore at Michael, scratching his skin as he screamed in terror. A flash of bright light, and the girls flew backward, their teenage appearances back where they belonged. They soon stood up and looked pitifully on the guy who drained them of their youth.

Kevin was walking up to Morningstar, determination written all over his face. Ben looked at Gwen with concern, but she just looked away. They didn't notice the Slayers joining Kevin on the platform.

"We can always kill him," Sam said matter-of-factly. Kevin was startled at her calm tone. Then he remembered that she was one of the Pride; she did stuff like this for a living.

Evan noticed the look on Kevin's face and thought for a moment. He had to get on Ben's good side; that meant no killing any baddies while he was around. Evan looked at the pitiful man that was Michael and said out loud, "Yeah, but he wouldn't suffer if we killed him. Let's just leave him."

"Hold on," Kevin said. He grabbed the Plumbers badge off of Michael and absorbed the metal. "You don't deserve this," he said grimly as he destroyed the badge in his hand. Then they left him there, a puddle of misery.

Speaking of puddles…

After making sure the girls had a ride home and cleaning up the mess inside the dam, Ben said, "I'm an idiot."

"You just realized that?" Evan joked.

"I'm an idiot for taking Morningstar sides over yours. I messed up, big time." It sounded like Ben wanted to apologize. Not that he would, thanks to his stupid pride.

Carter put a hand on his shoulder. "We all make mistakes." Ben smiled over the fact that Carter wasn't mad at him. Not because she was touching him. That would be weird.

"It wasn't entirely your fault," Gwen admitted, forcing Ben out his happy fog. "It was like he had some sort of control over me."

"What's more important is that we're all safe now," Evan said as he looked at Ben. "And that Ben actually learned something today." Everyone turned to look at Ben, who was glaring daggers at his friend.

"If I'm going to be a leader, I need to show better judgment." Ben was blushing madly as he said this.

"If you're going to be a good leader, you need to stop sounding like such a jerk," Kevin said.

"I do not sound like a jerk!" Ben protested.

"You kind of do," Sam mumbled. Ben turned to Carter, who just shrugged her shoulders. Well, that was just great for Ben, who wanted to impress her with his awesome leadership skills. Now she probably thought he was an idiot.

"Well, it's getting late," Newt said, interrupting the argument before it escalated. "Do we have a ride?" he said to his cousin.

"No, we have to improvise," Carter said. James had left for the evening after dropping the Slayers off at the power plant. That meant the others had to fly back home with their mismatched wings, which really took a lot out of them. Why else would they use a chauffeur?

"You guys want a ride?" Kevin asked, looking somewhat hopefully at Sam. Sam took one look at Gwen and decided that it would be too damn awkward.

"No, it's cool. We can just fly."

"Wait, what?" But it was too late; the four Slayers were running away already.

"What are they-" Gwen began before she saw the wings coming out of their backs. She didn't get a good look at them. There was a sound like a sonic boom, only on a much smaller scale, and a large gust of wind forced the three heroes to close their eyes. When they opened them, the Slayers were gone.

Ben walked up to the place where they lifted off and saw feathers scattered haphazardly all over the place. He picked some of them up and saw that they were only four colors in all: solid honey gold, a pure brick red, forest green with soft brown spots all over it, and ink black with blue at the tip.

"That was weird," Kevin said behind Ben. Ben jumped a little, too busy with the feathers to give notice to his surroundings. Gwen was looking at the night sky, searching for the Pride, but they were long gone. But Ben was more startled than the rest of them, because he was thinking about something that had never once occurred to him before.

Could Ben fly without using the Omnitrix?

I just love cliff hangers, don't you?

...If you couldn't tell that was sarcasm, I feel sorry for you.